took up his quarters with the faithful citizens of Cologne, when he
appealed for help to his uncle, John of England, still under the papal
ban. With English help he united the princes of the Netherlands in a
party of opposition to the Pope and the Hohenstaufen. Frederick
answered by a closer and a more effective league with France. Even
before his coronation he had met Louis, the son of Philip Augustus, at
Vaucouleurs. All Europe seemed arming at the bidding of the Pope and
Emperor.
John of England now hastily reconciled himself to Innocent, at the
price of the independence of his kingdom. He thus became in a better
position to aid his excommunicated nephew, and revenge the loss of
Normandy and Anjou on Philip Augustus. His plan was now a twofold one.
He himself summoned the barons of England to follow him in an attempt
to recover his ancient lands on the Loire. Meanwhile, Otto and the
Netherlandish lords were encouraged, by substantial English help, to
carry out a combined attack on France from the north. The opposition
of the English barons reduced to comparative insignificance the
expedition to Poitou, but a very considerable army gathered together
under Otto, and took up its position in the neighborhood of Tournai.
Among the French King's vassals, Ferrand, Count of Flanders, long
hostile to his overlord Philip, and the Count of Boulogne fought
strenuously on Otto's side; while, of the Imperial vassals, the Count
of Holland and Duke of Brabant (Lower Lorraine) were among Otto's most
active supporters. A considerable English contingent came also, headed
by Otto's bastard uncle, William Longsword, Earl of Salisbury. Philip
himself commanded the chivalry of France, leaving his son Louis to
fight against John in Poitou. On July 27th the decisive battle was
fought at Bouvines, a few miles southwest of Tournai. The army of
France and Church gained an overwhelming victory over the league which
had incurred the papal ban, and Otto's fortunes were utterly
shattered. He soon lost all his hold over the Rhineland, and was
forced to retreat to the ancient domains of his house in Saxony. His
remaining friends made their peace with Philip and Frederick. The
defection of the Wittelsbachers lost his last hold in the south of
Germany, and the desertion of Valdemar of Denmark deprived him of a
strong friend in the North. John withdrew from Continental politics to
be beaten more decisively by his barons than he had been beaten in
Poitou or at Bouvines.
Frederick II, was now undisputed King of the Romans, and Innocent III
had won another triumph. By the Golden Bull of Eger (July, 1213)
Frederick had already renewed the concessions made by Otto to the
Church, and promised obedience to the holy see. In 1216 he pledged
himself to separate Sicily from the Empire, and establish his son
Henry there as king, under the supremacy of the Church. But, like his
other triumphs, Innocent's victory over the Empire was purchased at no
small cost. For the first time, a German national irritation at the
aggressions of the papacy began to be distinctly felt. It found an
adequate expression in the indignant verses of Walther von der
Vogelweide, protesting against the priests who strove to upset the
rights of the laity, and denouncing the greed and pride of the
foreigners who profited by the humiliation of Germany.
Amid all the distractions of western politics, Innocent III ardently
strove to revive the crusading spirit. He never succeeded in raising
all Europe, as several of his predecessors had done. But after great
efforts, and the eloquent preaching of Fulk of Neuilly he stirred up a
fair amount of enthusiasm for the crusading cause, and, in 1204, a
considerable crusading army, mainly French, mustered at Venice. It was
the bitterest disappointment of Innocent's life that the Fourth
Crusade never reached Palestine, but was diverted to the conquest of
the Greek empire. Yet the establishment of a Catholic Latin empire at
Constantinople, at the expense of the Greek schismatics, was no small
triumph. Not disheartened by his first failure, Innocent still urged
upon Europe the need of the holy war. If no expedition against the
Saracens of Syria marked the result of his efforts, his pontificate
saw the extension of the crusading movement to other lands. Innocent
preached the crusade against the Moors of Spain, and rejoiced in the
news of the momentous victory of the Christians at Navas de Tolosa. He
saw the beginnings of a fresh crusade against the obstinate heathen on
the eastern shores of the Baltic.
But all these crusades were against pagans and infidels. Innocent made
a much greater new departure when he proclaimed the first crusade
directed against a Christian land. The Albigensian crusade succeeded
in destroying the most dangerous and widespread popular heresy that
Christianity had witnessed since the fall of the Roman Empire, and
Innocent rejoiced that his times saw the Church purged of its worst
blemish. But in extending the benefits of a crusade to Christians
fighting against Christians, he handed on a precedent which was soon
fatally abused by his successors. In crushing out the young national
life of Southern France the papacy again set a people against itself.
The denunciations of the German Minnesinger were reechoed in the
complaints of the last of the Troubadours. Rome had ceased to do harm
to Turks and Saracens, but had stirred up Christians to war against
fellow-Christians. God and his saints abandon the greedy, the
strife-loving, the unjust worldly Church. The picture is darkly
colored by a partisan, but in every triumph of Innocent there lay the
shadow of future trouble.
Crusades, even against heretics and infidels, are the work of earthly
force rather than of spiritual influence. It was to build up the great
outward corporation of the Church that all these labors of Innocent
mainly tended. Even his additions to the canon law, his reforms of
ecclesiastical jurisdiction, dealt with the external rather than the
internal life of the Church. The criticism of James of Vitry, that the
Roman curia was so busy in secular affairs that it hardly turned a
thought to spiritual things, is clearly applicable to much of
Innocent's activity. But the many-sided Pope did not ignore the
religious wants of the Church. His crusade against heresy was no mere
war against enemies of the wealth and power of the Church. The new
tendencies that were to transform the spiritual life of the thirteenth
century were not strange to him. He favored the early work of Dominic;
he had personal dealings with Francis, and showed his sympathy with
the early work of the poor man of Assisi. But it is as the conqueror
and organizer rather than the priest or prophet that Innocent made his
mark in the Church. It is significant that, with all his greatness, he
never attained the honors of sanctity.
Toward the end of his life, Innocent held a general council in the
basilica of St. John Lateran. A vast gathering of bishops heads of
orders, and secular dignitaries gave brilliancy to the gathering and
enhanced the glory of the Pontiff. Enthroned over more than four
hundred bishops, the Pope proudly declared the law to the world. "Two
things we have specially to heart," wrote Innocent, in summoning the
assembly, "the deliverance of the Holy Land and the reform of the
Church Universal." In its vast collection of seventy canons, the
Lateran Council strove hard to carry out the Pope's programme. It
condemned the dying heresies of the Albigenses and the Cathari, and
prescribed the methods and punishments of the unrepentant heretic. It
strove to rekindle zeal for the crusade. It drew up a drastic scheme
for reforming the internal life and discipline of the Church. It
strove to elevate the morals and the learning of the clergy, to check
their worldliness and covetousness, and to restrain them from abusing
the authority of the Church through excess of zeal or more corrupt
motives. It invited bishops to set up free schools to teach poor
scholars grammar and theology. It forbade trial by battle and trial by
ordeal. It subjected the existing monastic orders to stricter
superintendence, and forbade the establishment of new monastic rules.
It forbade superstitious practices and the worship of spurious or
unauthorized relics.
The whole series of canons sought to regulate and ameliorate the
influence of the Church on society. If many of the abuses aimed at
were too deeply rooted to be overthrown by mere legislation, the
attempt speaks well for the character and intelligence of Pope and
council. All mediaeval lawmaking, civil and ecclesiastical alike, was
but the promulgation of an ideal, rather than the issuing of precepts
meant to be literally executed. But no more serious attempt at rooting
out inveterate evils was ever made in the Middle Ages than in this
council.
The formal enunciation of this lofty programme of reform brought
Innocent's pontificate to a glorious end. The Pontiff devoted what
little remained of his life to hurrying on the preparations for the
projected crusade, which was to set out 1217. But in the summer of
1216 Innocent died at Perugia, when only fifty-six years old. If not
the greatest he was the most powerful of all the popes. For nearly
twenty years the whole history of Europe groups itself round his
doings.
SIGNING OF MAGNA CHARTA
A.D. 1215
DAVID HUME
The Great Charter is one of the most famous documents in
history. Regarded as the foundation of English civil
liberty, it also stands as the historic prototype of later
declarations of human freedom in various lands. In the Great
Charter, as observed by Green, "the vague expressions of the
older charters were exchanged for precise and elaborate
provisions. The Great Charter marks the transition from the
age of traditional rights to the age of written legislation,
of parliaments and statutes, which was soon to come."
King John of England, although compelled to submit to the
loss of his French provinces in 1204, never after lost sight
of plans for the renewal of the war with France. A bitter
controversy with Pope Innocent III began over an election
for the archbishopric of Canterbury, and resulted in a bull
deposing John, 1212, with a command to Philip of France to
execute the deposition. John made terms with the Pope by
agreeing to hold his kingdom in fief from the pontiff, and
to pay an annual tribute of one thousand marks (1213).
John then invaded France, in alliance with Otho IV, Emperor
of the Holy Roman Empire, and others, but was defeated at
Bouvines, near Lille, 1214. This ended John's endeavors to
recover his lost power in France, and he could only think
henceforth of ruling peaceably his own kingdom and
preserving, to his own advantage, his now close connection
with the Pope. But although the English King's reign had
been full of unfortunate events, the last and most grievous
of his trials still awaited him, and "he was destined to
pass through a series of more humiliating circumstances than
had ever yet fallen to the lot of any other monarch."
Under the feudal law of William the Conqueror, the ancient
liberties of the Anglo-Saxons were greatly curtailed; in
fact, the whole English people were reduced to a state of
vassalage, which for the majority closely bordered upon
actual slavery. Even the proud Norman barons themselves
submitted to a kingly prerogative more absolute than was
usual in feudal governments. A charter of comparative
liberality had been granted by Henry I, renewed by Stephen,
and confirmed by Henry II, but had never, either in letter
or spirit, been made effective. And now came the great
crisis in which the matters at issue--first between the King
and his barons, but ultimately between the Grown and the
subjects at large--were to be adjusted. The event was
hastened by the exactions and impositions of John himself,
and by personal as well as official conduct which rendered
him odious to his people--these causes at length producing a
general combination against him.
The effect of John's lawless practices had already appeared in the
general demand made by the barons of a restoration of their
privileges; and after he had reconciled himself to the Pope, by
abandoning the independence of the kingdom, he appeared to all his
subjects in so mean a light that they universally thought they might
with safety and honor insist upon their pretensions.
But nothing forwarded this confederacy so much as the concurrence of
Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury; a man whose memory, though he was
obtruded on the nation by a palpable encroachment of the see of Rome,
ought always to be respected by the English. This prelate--whether he
was moved by the generosity of his nature and his affection to public
good or had entertained an animosity against John, on account of the
long opposition made by that prince to his election, or thought that
an acquisition of liberty to the people would serve to increase and
secure the privileges of the Church--had formed the plan of reforming
the government. In a private meeting of some principal barons at
London, he showed them a copy of Henry I's charter, which, he said, he
had happily found in a monastery; and he exhorted them to insist on
the renewal and observance of it. The barons swore that they would
sooner lose their lives than depart from so reasonable a demand.
The confederacy began now to spread wider, and to comprehend almost
all the barons in England; and a new and more numerous meeting was
summoned by Langton at St. Edmundsbury, under color of devotion. He
again produced to the assembly the old charter of Henry; renewed his
exhortations of unanimity and vigor in the prosecution of their
purpose; and represented, in the strongest colors, the tyranny to
which they had so long been subjected, and from which it now behooved
them to free themselves and their posterity. The barons, inflamed by
his eloquence, incited by the sense of their own wrongs, and
encouraged by the appearance of their power and numbers, solemnly took
an oath, before the high altar, to adhere to each other, to insist on
their demands, and to make endless war on the King till he should
submit to grant them. They agreed that, after the festival of
Christmas, they would prefer in a body their common petition; and in
the mean time they separated, after mutually engaging that they would
put themselves in a posture of defence, would enlist men and purchase
arms, and would supply their castles with the necessary provisions.
The barons appeared in London on the day appointed, and demanded of
the King, that, in consequence of his own oath before the primate, as
well as in deference to their just rights, he should grant them a
renewal of Henry's charter, and a confirmation of the laws of St.
Edward. The King, alarmed with their zeal and unanimity, as well as
with their power, required a delay; promised that, at the festival of
Easter, he would give them a positive answer to their petition; and
offered them the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of Ely, and the
Earl of Pembroke as sureties for his fulfilling this engagement. The
barons accepted of the terms, and peaceably returned to their castles.
During this interval, John, in order to break or subdue the league of
his barons, endeavored to avail himself of the ecclesiastical power,
of whose influence he had, from his own recent misfortunes, had such
fatal experience. He granted to the clergy a charter, relinquishing
forever that important prerogative for which his father and all his
ancestors had zealously contended; yielding to them the free election
on all vacancies; reserving only the power to issue a _congé d'élire_,
and to subjoin a confirmation of the election; and declaring that, if
either of these were withheld, the choice should nevertheless be
deemed just and valid.
He made a vow to lead an army into Palestine against the infidels, and
he took on him the cross, in hopes that he should receive from the
Church that protection which she tendered to everyone that had entered
into this sacred and meritorious engagement. And he sent to Rome his
agent, William de Mauclerc, in order to appeal to the Pope against the
violence of his barons, and procure him a favorable sentence from that
powerful tribunal. The barons, also, were not negligent on their part
in endeavoring to engage the Pope in their interests. They despatched
Eustace de Vescie to Rome; laid their case before Innocent as their
feudal lord, and petitioned him to interpose his authority with the
King, and oblige him to restore and confirm all their just and
undoubted privileges.
Innocent beheld with regret the disturbances which had arisen in
England, and was much inclined to favor John in his pretensions. He
had no hopes of retaining and extending his newly acquired superiority
over that kingdom, but by supporting so base and degenerate a prince,
who was willing to sacrifice every consideration to his present
safety; and he foresaw that if the administration should fall into the
hands of those gallant and high-spirited barons, they would vindicate
the honor, liberty, and independence of the nation, with the same
ardor which they now exerted in defence of their own. He wrote
letters, therefore, to the prelates, to the nobility, and to the King
himself. He exhorted the first to employ their good offices in
conciliating peace between the contending parties, and putting an end
to civil discord. To the second he expressed his disapprobation of
their conduct in employing force to extort concessions from their
reluctant sovereign; the last he advised to treat his nobles with
grace and indulgence, and to grant them such of their demands as
should appear just and reasonable.
The barons easily saw, from the tenor of these letters, that they must
reckon on having the Pope, as well as the King, for their adversary;
but they had already advanced too far to recede from their
pretensions, and their passions were so deeply engaged that it
exceeded even the power of superstition itself any longer to control
them. They also foresaw that the thunders of Rome, when not seconded
by the efforts of the English ecclesiastics, would be of small avail
against them; and they perceived that the most considerable of the
prelates, as well as all the inferior clergy, professed the highest
approbation of their cause. Besides that these men were seized with
the national passion for laws and liberty, blessings of which they
themselves expected to partake, there concurred very powerful causes
to loosen their devoted attachment to the apostolic see. It appeared,
from the late usurpations of the Roman Pontiff, that he intended to
reap alone all the advantages accruing from that victory, which under
his banners, though at their own peril, they had everywhere obtained
over the civil magistrate.
The Pope assumed a despotic power over all the churches; their
particular customs, privileges, and immunities were treated with
disdain; even the canons of general councils were set aside by his
dispensing power; the whole administration of the Church was centred
in the court of Rome; all preferments ran, of course, in the same
channel; and the provincial clergy saw, at least felt, that there was
a necessity for limiting these pretensions.
The legate, Nicholas, in filling those numerous vacancies which had
fallen in England during an interdict of six years, had proceeded in
the most arbitrary manner; and had paid no regard, in conferring
dignities, to personal merit, to rank, to the inclination of the
electors, or to the customs of the country. The English Church was
universally disgusted; and Langton himself, though he owed his
elevation to an encroachment of the Romish see, was no sooner
established in his high office than he became jealous of the privilege
annexed to it, and formed attachments with the country subjected to
his jurisdiction. These causes, though they opened slowly the eyes of
men, failed not to produce their effect; they set bounds to the
usurpations of the papacy; the tide first stopped, and then turned
against the sovereign Pontiff; and it is otherwise inconceivable how
that age, so prone to superstition, and so sunk in ignorance, or
rather so devoted to a spurious erudition, could have escaped falling
into an absolute and total slavery under the court of Rome.
About the time that the Pope's letters arrived in England, the
malcontent barons, on the approach of the festival of Easter, when
they were to expect the King's answer to their petition, met by
agreement at Stamford; and they assembled a force consisting of above
two thousand knights, besides their retainers and inferior persons
without number. Elated with their power, they advanced in a body to
Brackley, within fifteen miles of Oxford, the place where the court
then resided; and they there received a message from the King, by the
Archbishop of Canterbury and the Earl of Pembroke, desiring to know
what those liberties were which they so zealously challenged from
their sovereign. They delivered to these messengers a schedule,
containing the chief articles of their demands; which was no sooner
shown to the King than he burst into a furious passion, and asked why
the barons did not also demand of him his kingdom; swearing that he
would never grant them such liberties as must reduce himself to
slavery.
No sooner were the confederate nobles informed of John's reply than
they chose Robert Fitz-Walter their general, whom they called "the
mareschal of the army of God and of Holy Church "; and they proceeded
without further ceremony to levy war upon the King, They besieged the
castle of Northampton during fifteen days, though without success; the
gates of Bedford castle were willingly opened to them by William
Beauchamp, its owner; they advanced to Ware on their way to London,
where they held a correspondence with the principal citizens; they
were received without opposition into the capital; and finding now the
great superiority of their force, they issued proclamations, requiring
the other barons to join them, and menacing them, in case of refusal
or delay, with committing devastation on their houses and estates. In
order to show what might be expected from their prosperous arms, they
made incursions from London, and laid waste the King's parks and
palaces; and all the barons, who had hitherto carried the semblance of
supporting the royal party, were glad of this pretence for openly
joining a cause which they always had secretly favored. The King was
left at Odiham, in Hampshire, with a poor retinue of only seven
knights, and after trying several expedients to elude the blow, after
offering to refer all differences to the Pope alone, or to eight
barons, four to be chosen by himself, and four by the confederates, he
found himself at last obliged to submit at discretion.
A conference between the King and the barons was appointed at
Runnymede, between Windsor and Staines; a place which has ever since
been extremely celebrated, on account of this great event. The two
parties encamped apart, like open enemies; and after a debate of a few
days, the King, with a facility somewhat suspicious, signed and sealed
the charter which was required of him. This famous deed, commonly
called the "Great Charter," either granted or secured very important
liberties and privileges to every order of men in the kingdom: to the
clergy, to the barons, and to the people. The freedom of elections was
secured to the clergy; the former charter of the King was confirmed,
by which the necessity of a royal congé d'élire and confirmation was
superseded; all check upon appeals to Rome was removed, by the
allowance granted every man to depart the kingdom at pleasure, and the
fines to be imposed on the clergy, for any offence, were ordained to
be proportional to their lay estates, not to their ecclesiastical
benefices.